SFA Professor Conducts Online Interviews with Public; Documents Everyday Life During Pandemic

0
809

When I caught word that a local professor from Stephen F. Austin was doing online interviews with people and documenting what is sure to be a history-altering event in this coronavirus outbreak, I immediately knew that we needed to look into this thing further.

When I found out it was Herbert Midgley conducting the interviews, it was then that I knew we had hit paydirt.

Midgley, a music education professor at SFA, along with his music pedigree possesses an extensive resume in video. Midgley has made thousands of homemade videos for his Youtube channel (has taken on the appropriate moniker of “The Internet Legend”), and has been directly involved in the creation of a number of independent films.

While continuing his curriculum online after the closure of the university, Midgley has re-utilized the online meeting app Zoom for the purposes of interviewing the public and gaining first-hand documentation of everyday life, as it occurs.

“I’ve been using Zoom to teach classes, and I thought, “Well, I could do interviews literally all around the world … This is a documentary that I can shoot, and film, and edit right now, while [we] can’t do anything else.”

“We know the feelings we have right now- A month from now, a year or two from now, we won’t remember these things exactly this way… If we had these firsthand accounts after… any big event that changes the country, I think for historians and for ourselves we can learn a lot about what we are thinking about as these things are going on right now.”

In a two-part online discussion with Herbert, I get the chance to sit down and go through one of his interviews- discuss how my personal life has changed, and the things I have seen and experienced, then flip the script and interview him- Not just on his findings through his interviews, but also on his personal perspective on current events, and how this has effected his day-to-day life as well.

In an effort to help grow the number of interviews Herbert has, I encourage you to reach out to him via his Facebook page and tell him your are interested in signing up! He does use Zoom, a highly intuitive, free online video program available both on PC and mobile. This was a very engaging and rather fun experience, and could be an important piece of data in the future- Take some time and help possibly be a part of history!

Part 1 consists of my interview of Herbert, outlining the documentary series and his spin on the pandemic and life as it currently is. Part 2 will go live tomorrow (April 11th), and consists of Herbert’s interview of me- If you are interested in participating in one, this should be a good outline for what to expect going in.

And please- Forgive me for not having shaved- It’s been a weird few weeks.

See Part II Here.